Let's start some discussion. When did you get into goth?

okay so my dad went to me cause i painted my nails black n said "so you a goth now" in like a mockish way
so i became a goth to repent him
best decision of my life because i absouletely love goth history and music 

thats one funny story LOL. it was definitely worth it!

My mom loves goth music, so I always listened to it! Even tough I only started dressing goth pretty recently ;p love it 

THATS SO COOL... did your mum consider herself a goth at some point? I suppose she probably at least understands your interests and fashion sense?

i’ve always loved goth culture but back then i was a tiny little emo kid, i started to grow a love for the goth subcultures through Its Black Friday. and around last year i started to get into the goth music and culture :D

ooh that's awesome! I always loved dark things as a kid too

My discovery of Malice Mizer lead me down a goth "rabbit hole" around a year ago. I listen to the music and participate in the culture although my fashion style hasn't fully developed since I'm a minor who lives in a Christian European household so any goth clothes I want I have to D.I.Y.

thats so cool! and yep that's understandable, most people don't have access to various fashion styles, including myself, so you gotta be creative. and that's the way things were before all the "goth shops" existed , you had to strategically pair things and DIY. 

Hello hello, arriving late but wanting to talk a little about this!! 

I started to feel attracted to this lifestyle and world 4-5 years ago, however my parents would not accept their little bird turning into a crow, Even so, that didn't stop me from entering the subculture, I met many friends who supported me so it was a good meal.

I still can't follow the aesthetic due to parental restrictions, but here we go ;)

Well nonetheless you're here, it does suck but I hope you have a great time finally going all-out when you can! hopefully that's relatively soon? either way I think it's actually worth waiting until then. and haha I honestly love that analogy you made with the crow

same here, its really hard finding fellow goths in person.. =( well here we're glad to have ya! I think finding others with same interests that can be pretty rare now is a good reason to utilise the internet

my sister was in the emo and rock scene since the late 2000s still is and i grow up with it i ware emo fits but at like twelve i got into goth more i love it more and more everyday...

that's awesome! and yeah emo being a gateway is not uncommon, I myself was kind of that way. I was interested in goth music too but I was kind of more into emo at first 

I was a poser starting out in 8th grade (my biggest shame), claiming i was goth just because i thought goth was a fashion subculture. But then my middle school science teacher recommended me some old school goth bands (sisters of mercy being my first ever favourite goth band) and i was a goth ever since :))

We all start somewhere! Goth being just fashion is quite a widespread misconception so of course most people are pretty confused at first. it's great that there was someone open to correct the false impression and do it kindly as well, as to encourage you. and ah Sisters of Mercy was a nice choice!

Na verdade, ainda estou estudando, sou apenas um babybat 👆👆

(Estou usando um tradutor.) 

incrível. espero que este grupo seja útil! 

my mother was a goth/scene/chola kid growing up, so i think i developed the same interests as a generational thing lmao

all jokes aside, i got into goth music during the covid 19 pandemic and discovered siouxsie and the banshees through the music video for Spellbound

i remembered watching it and thinking, "huh, this lady looks so different from other female singers. the eyebrows, dark messy hair but with bright yellow dress and chains. she looks pretty in her own way. never heard a voice like hers either." one fact about me is that its very hard for me to like a female singer since i listen more to male vocals. 

learned how to do makeup, listened to different goth albums to earn knowledge, and even watched goth youtubers online to understand the history of goth. 

the rest is history. 

ah that's very cool! and especially good that you took the time to actually research about the subculture. turns out a lot of people don't and they go on for a long while lead by the misconception that goth is "just a style". Siouxsie and The Banshees was one of the first goth bands I checked out too by the way!

While I was growning up I really liked dark stuff, like demons, vampires, ghosts and monsters (I was raised in a pretty catholic family, I even went to an all-girls catholic highschool with nuns as teachers my whole life), I started as a rock/metal fan, wearing all black and metal t shirts. But when I discovered visual key with The Gazette I loved their style! (that was about 2013), so since then I wanted to get into the goth aesthetic, but then I started college and I just focused on study. Then I re-discovered this band called Ghost (a few months before their last album Impera) and my love for the dark rised again, so now that I finished my major I have been starting to get really into the goth subculture, listening more goth music, learning about the clothing and the make up!. It has been about two years since I started!

Same, I grew up loving dark things too! I haven't listened to the GazettE (as yet) but they do look spectacular. Its great that you found your love for dark things again, goth will not disappoint for sure!

I think i started getting into the goth subculture about 1 or 2 years ago because of one of my best friends. They're the one who told me about being goth and listening to the music and i simply fell into this rabbit hole of searching stuff up about being goth(like makeup, style, bands, views etc). I absolutely love the music and I'm hoping to also get into the fashion more , but it's a bit for me at the moment because of school :<<

ooh thank that friend! it's great that they were open to introduce you to it. music is the heart of the subculture, fashion is subjective. I myself don't have the gothest of wardrobes, it's normal especially for us teenagers

my father is a musician and my mom is a retired goth, my mom used to be a mall goth back in the day and both my parents raised me on alterative music! once i hit my teen years i started getting more into goth music and goth fashion as well!  

alternative parents rock!! \m/ it's awesome that you're here now too 

ive always been an alt kid at heart and im pretty sure i was emo as a middle schooler lol. i think i started to gravitate towards the goth aesthetic around 2019 or 2020, but i didnt know how to get into the music cuz im so picky and was misinformed x,D so i didnt classify myself that way so i wouldnt be called a poser and to avoid being disrespectful. im older now and know how to do my own research tho, so im doing wat little me never could :ppp

Well I think it's great you're here now! we all get into it somehow and there's no right or wrong way. I also gravitated towards dark fashion without knowing about gothic rock at first, round the same time!

prolly a year or two ago now, my mom was goth and one of my friends was rlly into gothic literature, i got interested, asked and learned, (tho im def still a baby bat), and yea! :3

im so happy to be apart of this community!!

ugh you're so lucky to have a goth mom! 

... and Go†H iS HaPpY To HaVe You ...

or rather "pleased". goths are never happy!

there's no way of saying when i got into goth, but only earlier this year i went to a concert and had this epiphany realizing i was *in the scene* .  since then i've really been trying to connect with the community and express myself more

that's sick! what band did you see?

then comes silence & vision video :) most of the people there (or at least the most vocal) were there for vv but then comes silence was who i really went for; i do like them both though <3

ah how cool!!! mustve been very fun

ah how cool!!! mustve been very fun

My mom and a lot of her friends from when I was a kid are goth, so I grew up around the culture. Even though I was a lil goth baby, I didn’t start actively identifying as goth until my teens, so… Maybe around a decade ago?

Of course, if you ask my mom she’ll tell you she’s not goth, she’s new wave. This is because she’s old and is still defining subcultures based on which clubs you go to, but I mean… I’m sure most of the places she hung out at no longer exist, and we live in a state where there’s not so much as a single goth or new wave club, lmao. 

It’s interesting to see how the goth community has changed over the years. When I was growing up it was seen as a very holistic subculture, with a lot of emphasis on literature, art, film, and philosophy in addition to music and fashion. But I don’t see as much of that anymore…

Got into the cure, and then it all spiraled from there, really got into uk post punk and then gothic rock. But I had always found the subculture insanely cool.

New to this can you not respond directly to folk?

that's awesome, it is insanely cool! unfortunately I can't directly reply to people, it's more like a chain, and I'm not sure whether or not the people here even get notified

ArmoredAlchemist: having a goth mom sounds so cool! and haha "no I'm new wave!" is a very stereotypical response. maybe your mom listens to a lot of it too? 

and I agree those other aspects declined in popularity, I suppose they're not as crucial cause they're more of something that goths might typically enjoy along with gothic rock, but it would be nice to see more of it now

Huh, you think so? That’s interesting. I was always taught that it was important to explore these other avenues, because they were the foundation of what made goth what it is. For example, the goth music scene wouldn’t exist without Bela Lugosi’s Dead, which wouldn’t exist without Bela Lugosi’s performance as Dracula in the film, which in turn wouldn’t exist without Dracula the novel, which itself was a product of the gothic movement in literature and the sociopolitical landscape of the western world at the time. 

I find that in my area in particular, the irl goth community still has a lot of things like arts markets, craft-alongs, horror film screenings, open mic nights, etc. 

Totally see what you mean, but being a fan of the music is what's crucial to being apart of the subculture. as by definition, a goth is a fan of gothic rock. just as metalheads are fans of metal. 

it is true that gothic literature and film heavily inspired the subculture, but the goth subculture is not one centered around those things. 

a goth may not like those things, and they'd still be a goth, the same way a person who likes gothic art and literature may not be a goth. 

literature, art, and film have its place in the goth subculture of course, as it isn't surprising that many do enjoy those aspects, so many events could incorporate them but that's like metalheads and 80s horror movies. it's not what makes you a fan of the music, but you'll find that these fans often enjoy these things too as they could have inspired the subculture, or have similiar visual appeal

update: and about the fact that goth couldn't have done without gothic art, I don't think that forces one to particularly look into it, cause anything and everything inspires many things, one could say elvis presley had influence on rock as a whole so therefore goths must like him

Interesting. I guess things have changed since I was a kid, or maybe it’s just an online vs. offline difference? I’m glad newer goths are having fun either way!

I don't think it's a matter of time/old and new, offline and online, the goth scene of the 80s was centered around music and clubbing. from what I've seen of documentaries, the art and literature was portrayed as a common interest within the subculture rather than the basis. I guess your perception more so depends on the people around you, like your mom, it seems she heavily prioritised those aspects?

No, I’m not talking about my mom… That’s how the entire goth community in my area has always been. It’s what I hear from my online friends who are older goths or were raised goth, too. Most of us have been very surprised in recent years by the way the community has changed online! It’s not that change is a bad thing, but it’s a change nonetheless. 

Also, I would be wary of documentaries about goth. Most of them are pretty sensationalist and all about objectifying us, so they’re not always accurate. Some are, but most are pretty offensive. 

Idk much about goth music but I've always been interested in alt styles in general. I guess I actually dress more emo or whatever, hell idk if anything I like is considered goth smh >:( but anyway I've always been big on dark themes and sad music since I was a kid

Armored Alchemist: I've also talked with older goths who were around in the 90s and they didn't have particular interest in literature and art at all, and not to mention things were more limited back then and they just didn't have the chance to explore it.

also the documentaries I'm talking about isn't some crazy news report by random people, I mean proper documentaries exploring the scene and talking with goths, and also stuff the musicians themselves have said about the goth scene.

goths themselves from the 80s and 90s say it was all about the music, just as metal, grunge, emo, and all the others are. one could say it is important to explore gothic art and literature as it heavily inspired goth, but I don't think it goes beyond that.

and as far as the online community goes particularly, it has changed for the better even within the last 3-4 years. in fact, we are more so returning to the original mentality of the subculture, roughly 2020-2022 were the last years of the music denial being so widespread. while I'm still relatively new, I witnessed people finally begin to embrace the music again on a bigger level, a huge change from when I started, because I myself was the one constantly fighting people all the time, telling them about the music.

We were dealing with that new mentality the 2000s-2010s had created where goth was made to be anything under the moon but music. fashion, a "mindset", etc, goths of the 80s and 90s also regard that time as the downfall in terms of the original purpose being ignored just like that. now everybody seems to agree that goth is music-based again, thankfully

Maeismei00: thats okay, goth is totally worth checking out, though! hopefully this group can help

I see… I guess we’re at an impasse, then. Well, that’s ok. 

I do think this group is a bit misleading, though? I was surprised to see it in the fashion and shopping category, since that’s not really what goth is about. And since the group icon is iconic women of goth film and TV, I figured this group was for exploring the full depth of the music’s origins and the full scene, rather than just the surface of the music. It might be best to make that more clear, or you’ll probably get more folks like me, lol. 

As for me, I’ll take my leave. I’m very glad to see more people getting into goth music! I’m just looking for a bit more in-depth discussion than just a “what bands do you like”, so I’m going to look for a space that’s more in line with that. I hope you all have fun! Adios~

That is pretty weird to me, I didn't realise that myself. They should change it, if there's a way.

And yeah i agree, the photo can be a bit misleading but I don't think you should exclude yourself from this group! there's definitely room for gothic art, film and literature here, or in any goth space. I was more talking about what makes a goth. I'm sure plenty of people here are into gothic art 

I grew up in somewhat of a restrictive household, but I still managed to find goth and emo as a little girl. I would go to the mall and sneak into the Hot Topic and listen to metal music on an old Ipod because it wasn't allowed. i've only recently got back into it and it was a struggle at first since I was not used to that form of epxression anymore, but I have never been happier lol.